Dragonslayer Revised
by Melinda Dracocida
Summary: Our world is under attack from the forces of evil: dragons. Melissa is in the Dracocida coven that protects humans from Dragons, but one day, a mission goes horribly wrong. It’s my first story, please R&R! Revised! READ THE LAST CHAPTER!
1. Prologue

Hello peeps! I'm new to the cite so be nice! I got a lot of bad reviews last time so my mom helped me edit it and now I'm reposting it!

P.S. STOP CALLING ME A TROLL! You've never met me; you don't know what I look like! What, do you idiots think all lesbians look like monsters or something? Seriously, get a life jerks!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

Summary: Our world is under attack from the forces of evil: dragons. Melissa is in the Dracocida coven that protects humans from Dragons, but one day, a mission goes horribly wrong. It's my first story, please R&R!

"speech"

"_thoughts"_

"**elvish**"

**Dragonslayer**

Prologue

Melissa wiped the sweat off her brow, and let the cool night breeze caress her slender form and long black braid. Then she raised her sword over her head and with a defiant yell, brought the katana crashing through the dragon's neck with ease belying her delicate frame.

"Good job, Mel," her handler Jake said. "Tenth this week. Wonder if something supernatural is going down here in California." He tossed her a blood packet.

She eagerly tore into the packet and drank the contents down in one gulp. Her teeth were long white daggers that gleamed in the moonlight. A small trickle of blood spillage slipped down her pointed chin and down her alabaster neck, blending into her scarlet leather jacket. She was wearing matching leather pants and stomper boots with two-inch soles. They were red to mask the evidence of blood that she covered herself in every night. She had a soft knit cotton tank top that hugged her curves and revealed her modest breasts. On her belt hug the scabbard of her katana with was black with silver leaves embossed into its surface.

"Here's a box full," he said, reaching into the trunk of his car. "It ought to last you the rest of the week."

"Why are you being so generous?" she asked, tossing aside the empty packet, whipping the blood off her lips with her hand, then licked the blood off of her hand, watching Jake blush and turn away. Even though she wasn't interested in him, she liked playing with him. Men are so easy to predict.

"Well, it looks like some shit is going down, so I figured you need all the strength you can manage."

"What sort of shit? Has the council of Dracocida given us any clues?" The council of Dracocida was a coven of powerful vampires that Melissa killed dragons for.

Jake shook his head. "They don't know anything either. All they know is that a few miles south is where the shit seems to be centered around, so you should go over there and find out."

"And you?" She turned her mesmerizing violet eyes to him and locked him in her gaze. "_You're coming too, right? I might need a wizard to tell me how to kill "the shit,"_ she thought to him.

Jake turned a violent shade of red and struggled out of the gaze of her glowing orbs. "I think it's best if you go alone," he said. "If something dangerous happens, I'll only get in the way."

"_Coward!"_ she rolled her eyes and dumped the box of blood packets into her bag. "Okay, I'm off!" she said and climbed onto her gleaming black Yamaha YZ450F motorbike and revved the engine and charged off into the night.

Suddenly, out of nowhere two dragons dropped out of the sky and charged for her. "_Oh shit!"_ she thought and dodged them, bringing out her katana. One of them belched a belly full of flame at her so she spun her motorcycle around and raced into a 30 story parking garage. She zoomed up to the top floor. As she suspected, the dragons were sitting outside, guarding where she'd gone in.

"HEY DRACKY! I'M UP HERE!" she shouted. The dragons turned and flew strait up towards her and she revved the engine and drove off the top of the building. For an instant she was weightless, and she jumped off the bike and turned a flip. The bike collided with one of the dragon's heads and killed it in a fiery instant explosion as the bike struck the dragon's head. The other dragon turned to look at the death of its comrade and in that instant, exposed its neck to her. She cut off its head with ease and rode its corpse to the ground, the blood spurting everywhere and drenching her shoes.

She looked back at the smoldering heap of dragon and motorcycle and sighed. "_Tonight is not my night."_ she thought. Then she saw what the dragons were protecting. It looked like a dragon egg, but it was glowing and its surface looked like dozens of mirrors had been crushed on its surface. "_Maybe I should call Jake,"_ she thought. "_Nah… What's the worse that could happen?"_ She lightly touched its sparkling, luminescent surface, and the world went dark.

"_Shit,"_ she thought, and fell unconscious.

Okay that's it for the first chapter! I hope you liked it! Kindly leave a review for me! Review me and I'll review you!

P.S. Dracocida is Latin for Dragonslayer!


	2. Memories

Yes my story DOES have something to do with Middle Earth! You guys judge too quickly! I deon't care what you guys say, I'm writing for ME!

Thanks to my mom who helped me write this and gives me encouragement even when I'm surrounded by stupid naysayers.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

Summary: Our world is under attack from the forces of evil: dragons. Melissa is in the Dracocida coven that protects humans from Dragons, but one day, a mission goes horribly wrong. It's my first story, please R&R!

"speech"

"_thoughts"_

"**elvish**"

**Dragonslayer**

Chapter 1 - Memories

Melissa woke up to the sounds of screams. She was lying in a cobblestone street. "_This isn't right!" _she thought. "_There aren't any cobblestone streets where I was!_" The houses were medieval styled houses made of wood. A woman ran by screaming. She was wearing a long dress that looked straight out of the medieval ages.

"Where the hell am I?" she whispered under her breath. Suddenly something huge and golden flew over head. Instinctively she unsheathed her katana. She spotted a man with dark hair and a bow and arrow, aiming it at the dragon. "_How the hell is that going to work?_" she wondered, scaling the side of a house. The dragon turned around for a second fly-by and she jumped onto its tail and climbed up its shimmering scales. People screamed, pointing up at her. The man with the bow and arrow dropped them as his mouth dropped too. "_What is that crazy girl thinking?_" Melissa heard him think. "_She'll get herself killed!_"

"_Sorry, fancy pants, but not today!_" she thought. Finally she had reached its head and stabbed the sword through the base of its scull. The dragon screamed and thrashed in the air, hurling her over the lake with the reflections of the burning houses sparkling off the water. "_How beautiful_," she thought and landed easily on the dock crouching, like Trinity from the Matrix.

Immediately the people swarmed around her cheering and clapping. "Oh brave warrior, thank-you!" cried a woman in medieval dress.

"Thanks, but this is my job."

The man with the bow and arrow walked up to her and bowed. "That was incredible; I've never seen a maiden so brave."

"No thank-you, really it was nothing." She said, backing up from the pressing crowd. "It's my job. Haven't you heard of Dracocida before? I kill dragons all the time."

"Dracocida?" the man asked. "I've never heard of that before. What is a Dracocida?"

"Not a Dracocida, THE Dracocida." Melissa groaned, realizing that she would have to explain to these LARPers what the Dracocida was. "_What a sheltered life these people live. I wonder if they are part of some weird cult. I should be careful if someone offers me punch."_ She laughed privately at her joke.

She jumped on a crate, cleared her throat and shouted over the crowds, "The Dracocida are a coven of vampires allied with wizards sworn to protect humanity from the plague of evil dragons conquering the world! We were secret for centuries, but then the dragons got the upper hand and we had to break our cover. I am only 1 of hundreds of Dracocida!" She looked over the hundreds of tired, uncomprehending medieval faces and a horrible realization came to her. "_That dragon egg I touched did more than knock me out. It was a demon portal! I've been sucked into a place that the Dracocida doesn't exist!"_

She jumped down from the crate and looked to the dark haired man for help. She wasn't very good at dealing with crowd control.

"We must congratulate you then," the man said. "You just killed the last of the dragons in Middle Earth."

"WHAT???" she bellowed. "How is that possible?? I've been killing dragons for hundreds of years and there was no end to them, how can…" she dropped to her knees, gasping for breath. Her whole purpose in life, her reason for being was gone. The beginning of her struggles against the dragons seemed somehow belittled by the ease of the killing of the last dragon in the world. She could hardly remember why she had started on her quest to slay dragons; a vague, bloody memory from her human life was all that remained.

FLASHBACK

She was standing on a rooftop in a once beautiful blue silk kimono now singed and covered in soot in feudal Japan, the wax in her hairdo melted and her soiled hair flowing down her shoulders and back, staining her clothes further. In her hand was a Muramasa katana; its thirst for vengeance burning her every muscle more and more while she didn't attack. The dragon before her was a smoldering heap, its last curse on the world burning her beloved city.

"You did well," whispered a voice behind her. She turned quickly, Katana ready. "You have strength, that you do, but you don't yet have the strength to wield that katana without it overtaking you." The speaker was a beautiful woman she had never seen before, dressed all in brilliant red wedding kimono. Her hair was adorned with jewels, and the grace with which she moved was mesmerizing. Her skin was so white and smooth it reflected the flames dancing in the buildings and made her seem like a living sculpture of flame. Her eyes were deep black orbs that pulled her in, like gazing into a dark spot in the nightsky. She was beautiful, nay, entrancing. "Do you want to have that strength?" Her words were pure seduction. The singed and trembling girl was instantly in love.

"Hai," she whispered.

Suddenly she was exhausted, and the woman was cradling her body, lightly kissing her neck. The world spun and twisted before her, becoming a tornado of flame and wrecked buildings. "Now," the woman in red whispered, "I have something for you to drink."

She closed her weary eyes and let the viscous liquid dribble into her mouth. Suddenly her whole body was aflame. She screamed and cried out in pain, but the woman in red whispered in her ear, "Now take your revenge." Then she passed out, still clutching the demonic katana.

END FLASHBACK

Melissa turned her face upwards to the familiar smoke-choked sky. "_Oh God, what do I do now?_"

Please review and BE NICE for a change!


	3. Chapter 6

"Chapter Six"

All review bans are lifted!

I'm certain that you all have gotten messages from Eldoniel Alberti, so this will come as no surprise to you, but yes, I was a trolling. It was a writing challenge at whygodwhy(.)org. If you're pissed, you can skip the rest of this message and flame me. I don't mind. Then, once you've calmed down, go ahead and read the rest.

It was a very interesting experiment. At first, it was to loosen up my writing and hopefully break through writer's block, but then this project surprised me. I was completely taken aback that writing so badly could be so difficult. Every muscle in my body wanted to go back and fix the errors. I even started to dream up ways to redeem the badfic. So, I focused on making this an exercise in characterization. Thus, Melinda was born.

Melinda is sixteen years old. She loves to write, though she isn't very well practiced at it yet. It shows very much in her writing style, which sometimes is poetic and rich in detail, and others simply listing events she isn't interested in. She also took the time to do a little research. This is the character I presented you with. She's obviously an inexperienced writer, but she has the potential to become quite a good addition to our fandom, once she had moved past the Mary Sue stage.

I was particularly interested in the way my fandom would react. I entered the contest a little late, so I got the chance to observe the others' badfic projects. No one had gotten any criticism. They were getting heaps of praise even! My fandom wouldn't be so shallow, would it? Happily I was right. You guys tore Melinda's badfic apart. Part of the contest was to explain in the final chapter (there was supposed to be six chapters, but I couldn't bring myself to finish it.) to all of the fangirls drooling over the badfic that the story was bad and to list all of the reasons. Because that's not the response I got, I get the privilege to critique the critics.

This badfic got a wide range of criticism. There were the saintly, beautiful reviews left by I.H.N, which gave in depth criticism and encouragement at the same time. I could tell that I.H.N not only read the fanfic, but thought about it. Some of you may not know this, but I.H.N has been reviewing LotR fanfictions with these fantastic reviews for who knows how many years. I.H.N, we need more people like you. You are an important part of our fandom; a voice of sanity, unbiased by the fads of our fandom. You've been reviewing for years and not taking any credit. We respect and love you. Thank you.

Next there are the reviews from people who not only put some time into reviewing, and gave excellent follow-up care. You answered all of Melinda's questions, offering advice and help starting out as a fanfiction writer. Best of all was Eldoniel Alberti's work. She not only answered questions and gave helpful links; _she found Melinda a beta reader_. That takes dedication. Even though you found Why, God, Why? before the contest ended, and when you joined the forum, got in a fight with InkWeaver and decided to try to ruin the contest for me, (the logic of which I'm still not clear on) you did excellent work with Melinda. If you are that helpful to everyone you give constructive criticism to, our fandom will become a better place. Take one of those sockpuppets of yours and start spreading the love.

I didn't really get a chance to see much of Telcontar Rulz' follow-up care, but she was also extremely helpful and answered Melinda's questions. Telcontar Rulz, your initial review was a little lacking, and showed that you hadn't done much more than skim the chapter. The second review you gave was very helpful. Keep up the good work.

There were reviews that revealed their writers maybe spent a minute glancing over the first chapter; or had only gotten one sentence in. If that's all you've read of the story, maybe you shouldn't be leaving criticism. You don't know the plot well enough to come up with anything helpful. I know that there are days where you just don't feel like reading something bad in depth to give it criticism, but on those days, maybe you should read something good and review it. The bad fanfic here gets a lot of attention, but the good/mediocre fanfictions get very little help. Stop your crusade and help the people you claim you want in your fandom.

Then there were reviews from the like of The Battling Bard, which commented on the author's notes as if they were the most important part of writing. Author's notes are trivial. You were criticizing the author, not the story, and that is stepping into the territory of the flame. Guys, telling the author that you don't like him or her isn't going to make the overall content of your fandom any better. You might chase off an author who could, in the future, have produced the good fanfiction that you want to see.

Lastly, there were the flamers. The flamers surprised me the most. While their reviews were abusive, that was nothing to the way they actively tried to make Melinda quit writing when conversing with her in PMs. I was a bit aghast that these people would be so aggressive to someone obviously new to writing. Melinda had written a pretty horrible Mary Sue, but so do most of us in our youth.

Let me make something clear to you. Fanfiction isn't a competition. It's a medium for art. No one is keeping tally on how many "Mary Sue" stories there are versus how many "goodfic" there are. No one gets a prize if someone "wins". Don't make this "us versus them," because then you'll try to chase "them" out through abusive reviews and PMs. What's ridiculous about this is that all of "us" were "them" at one point in our lives. Writing is a thousand mile hike uphill, and we all started at the bottom.

Use reviews to teach others how to write fanfiction well. It's actually pretty easy. Start with a paragraph or two going over what was done well in the fanfiction. This softens the blows to follow, and helps the writer trust that you aren't out to get them. Then, go over the important parts of writing fanfiction: grammar/spelling, writing style, characterization, plot, keeping in canon. Finally, give some encouragement. By "encouragement" I don't mean "warrantless praise". If there isn't anything to praise, then don't praise it. In the least, tell the writer to keep trying.

Overly positive reviews are a backlash from overzealous flaming. Flamers are making fangirls/boys into fanbrats. Do you see now why "gang flaming," as The Battling Bard so eloquently put it, is detrimental to our fandom? I find it strange that you participate in such behavior while you claim to be aiming for a higher overall quality of fanfiction in our fandom.

RiverOtter1, CalenBee and especially Sharnorasian Empire, who befriended Melinda early on, I'm truly sorry that I tricked you. I was trying to keep my cover for the whole month of the contest, (you know how well that went!) and you were caught in the crossfire. Please accept my apologies.

I do understand how angry and frustrated people get when their fandoms are abused in bad fanfics. That's where places like "Why, God, Why?" and others come in handy. Snarking, sporking, PPCing, or MSTing (taking the fanfic apart piece-by-piece to make fun of it) is very helpful for reviewers. For one, it vents your anger in a place that it won't scald the person you want to help. For the other, the process of snarking makes one pick a story apart in the same level of detail that betaing requires. Detailed critiquing of writing will make you a better writer, further improving the quality of fanfic here. Telling the author that you think he or she is a nitwit doesn't help anyone.

All in all, I was very pleased with the showing for our fandom. It probably is the best place to learn about writing. The people here truly care for the canon and want to see good fanfiction. In this contest, ours was the only fandom which had such a constructive reaction to a young writer in need of a lot of help. As far as I'm concerned, we won.

Who am I actually? On "Why, God, Why?" I'm I_Lam_Edhellen. You probably know me as "your friendly neighborhood linguist," dreamingfifi.

Galu! (Good luck!)


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